Not Quite A Dial of Destiny
Illustration
Stories
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, Magi[a] from the east came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star in the east…. (vv.1-2)
By now many people have seen the movie Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny either in the theater, or on their television, their phone, their tablet, or some other device. Even so, on the office chance you didn’t see it, I’m not going to sneak in any spoilers or give anything away.
Except, maybe, talk about what the real Dial of Destiny is.
Each of the Indiana Jones movies had some sort of sacred object at its core: the Ark of the Covenant, a Hindu sacred stone, the Holy Grail, and a crystal skull.
Some of these artifacts are historical. There actually was an Ark of the Covenant. What finally happened to it is anyone’s guess. And the Holy Grail, the name given to the cup used by Jesus in what we call the Last Supper, was also real — although I doubt if anyone thought of it as a holy relic at the time. It was just one of the Passover cups used that night in that upper room owned by Mary, the mother of Mark (the author of the gospel bearing his name). I doubt if after all the cups and plates were washed anyone knew which Jesus used.
In the fifth movie everyone is looking for the Dial of Destiny, which is referred to as the Antikythera Device. It has all kinds of powers. I’ll let you watch the movie to discover what the filmmakers say it is. However, in the real world there actually was an Antikythera device and its remains are still around. And it was pretty amazing.
In ancient times, the Mediterranean Sea was plied by many ships laden with cargo. When unexpected storms struck, the result could be the loss of both cargo and human life. Even to this day many amazing treasures are being recovered.
In 1901, a diver exploring a wreck near the Greek island of Antikythera brought up a lump of metal in which all the parts were fused together. For decades it was on display at a museum, and scientists puzzled about what it could be.
More recently, modern technology has been brought to bear, and it turns out it was probably the most amazing thing to come out of the ancient world. Some unknown genius put together a series of gears attached to objects that represented the sun, moon, planets, and earth. It probably had a wooden housing. You turned a crank and you could see the motion of the objects in our solar system as they rotated around the Earth across the zodiac! It seems to have been the world’s first analog computer.
Remember, they thought the Earth was at the center of the universe. But because we actually rotate around the sun it sometimes looks like Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn turn loops in our sky. These are known as epicycles. They don’t really loop the loop, but because the sun is really at the center of the solar system, these planets appear to move backwards from our perspective only because we’re zipping past them in our journey around the sun.
It seems to have been built in the second century, BC, and alas, when it was lost in the shipwreck no one alive at the time could build another.
Some scientists have recreated the Antikythera device. Just Google it or look on YouTube and you’ll see videos of how it might have worked. Some think it was even used to predict solar and lunar eclipses. Whoever this unknown genius was who devised and created this hand-cranked mechanism was centuries ahead of his time. If only there was a real Indiana Jones perhaps he could discover just who this person was!
The Magi didn’t need a special device to keep track of the stars in the skies, nor did they use a machine, as far as we know, to predict eclipses of the sun and moon. Instead, they faithfully watched the skies each night and tracked the movement of the moon, stars, and planets across the heavens in their heads. And it was in this fashion that they determined that someone special was to be born in Judea, and that’s what sent them to Jerusalem, to find this newborn king.
By now many people have seen the movie Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny either in the theater, or on their television, their phone, their tablet, or some other device. Even so, on the office chance you didn’t see it, I’m not going to sneak in any spoilers or give anything away.
Except, maybe, talk about what the real Dial of Destiny is.
Each of the Indiana Jones movies had some sort of sacred object at its core: the Ark of the Covenant, a Hindu sacred stone, the Holy Grail, and a crystal skull.
Some of these artifacts are historical. There actually was an Ark of the Covenant. What finally happened to it is anyone’s guess. And the Holy Grail, the name given to the cup used by Jesus in what we call the Last Supper, was also real — although I doubt if anyone thought of it as a holy relic at the time. It was just one of the Passover cups used that night in that upper room owned by Mary, the mother of Mark (the author of the gospel bearing his name). I doubt if after all the cups and plates were washed anyone knew which Jesus used.
In the fifth movie everyone is looking for the Dial of Destiny, which is referred to as the Antikythera Device. It has all kinds of powers. I’ll let you watch the movie to discover what the filmmakers say it is. However, in the real world there actually was an Antikythera device and its remains are still around. And it was pretty amazing.
In ancient times, the Mediterranean Sea was plied by many ships laden with cargo. When unexpected storms struck, the result could be the loss of both cargo and human life. Even to this day many amazing treasures are being recovered.
In 1901, a diver exploring a wreck near the Greek island of Antikythera brought up a lump of metal in which all the parts were fused together. For decades it was on display at a museum, and scientists puzzled about what it could be.
More recently, modern technology has been brought to bear, and it turns out it was probably the most amazing thing to come out of the ancient world. Some unknown genius put together a series of gears attached to objects that represented the sun, moon, planets, and earth. It probably had a wooden housing. You turned a crank and you could see the motion of the objects in our solar system as they rotated around the Earth across the zodiac! It seems to have been the world’s first analog computer.
Remember, they thought the Earth was at the center of the universe. But because we actually rotate around the sun it sometimes looks like Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn turn loops in our sky. These are known as epicycles. They don’t really loop the loop, but because the sun is really at the center of the solar system, these planets appear to move backwards from our perspective only because we’re zipping past them in our journey around the sun.
It seems to have been built in the second century, BC, and alas, when it was lost in the shipwreck no one alive at the time could build another.
Some scientists have recreated the Antikythera device. Just Google it or look on YouTube and you’ll see videos of how it might have worked. Some think it was even used to predict solar and lunar eclipses. Whoever this unknown genius was who devised and created this hand-cranked mechanism was centuries ahead of his time. If only there was a real Indiana Jones perhaps he could discover just who this person was!
The Magi didn’t need a special device to keep track of the stars in the skies, nor did they use a machine, as far as we know, to predict eclipses of the sun and moon. Instead, they faithfully watched the skies each night and tracked the movement of the moon, stars, and planets across the heavens in their heads. And it was in this fashion that they determined that someone special was to be born in Judea, and that’s what sent them to Jerusalem, to find this newborn king.
